Insects at Burger Restaurants: Protesters 'Swarm' Business

Insects at two burger restaurants in London forced the businesses to close Friday evening after protesters released the swarm in retaliation for an immigration raids there, The Independent reported.

The activist groups London Black Revs and the Malcolm X Movement claimed responsibility for releasing the insect swarm at the Byron Hamburger restaurants, which included "live cockroaches, locusts, and crickets," said the Independent.

The groups targeted the gourmet burger restaurants after35 people from Albania, Brazil, Nepal and Egypt had been arrested on suspicion of immigration offenses at its London restaurants last month.

"London Black Revs and the Malcolm X Movement have taken affirmative action against Byron restaurants chain in response to the Byron restaurants chains despicable actions in the past weeks having entrapped waiters, back of house staff and chefs in collaboration with U.K. Border Agency," said a joint statement on the Malcolm X Movement's Facebook page.

"… We apologize to customers and staff for any irritation, however, we had to act as forced deportations such as this and others are unacceptable, we must defend these people and their families from such dehumanized treatment," the statement continued.

The Home Office, the United Kingdom's lead agency for immigration issues, said Byron Hamburger officials were shown false documents in the employment of the immigrants and will not face civil penalties for hiring them, said The Telegraph.

"The safety of our customers and restaurant teams is paramount, and our priority is now to work with local police to minimize the risk of further incident," a Byron spokeswoman told The Telegraph, adding that the restaurant cooperated with the Home Office's operation.

Concerns over an increase of immigrants into the United Kingdom appeared to drive the Brexit vote in June, said USA Today. Legal immigration in the United Kingdom is currently 10 times higher than it was in 1993, said the newspaper.

Some on social media used the hashtag #boycottbyron to continue their protest online, but one customer who said he was in one of the restaurants when the bugs were released tweeted that the protest probably missed its mark.

A group of protesters have just shut the Byron I was eating in on Shaftesbury Ave. by throwing a load of cockroaches into the restaurant.